7 Ways to Eat Thrifty Homemade Pizza Every Single Day

by the author of

The Ultimate Guide to Frugal Living and The Flat Broke Cookbook

ATTENTION: We Regret to Announce That Due to Rising Costs, Pizza Night Has Been Cancelled Until Further Notice.

Wait! Drop that megaphone! If you make your own homemade pizza, pizza night could be every night of the week with these thrifty recipes. There are multiple ways to make your own pizza, from sort of scratch to full-on scratch. All of them are less expensive than having pizza delivered, and heck, even less than frozen pizza. The last time I looked, frozen pizza could not be found for less than ten bucks. Ouch.

Plus, the stuff you make is SO. MUCH. BETTER. And you can control what goes on it. And you can make sure your kids get a veggie or two. Plus, it can be really fun to assemble the pizzas together on movie night.

The Crust of Your Homemade Pizza

The best supporting actor in the cast of pizza is, of course, the crust. There are all sorts of bases for a pizza, but here are some of the ones we find to be the tastiest and thriftiest. These doughs work for all of the recipes except the deep dish one, in which the crust is the star of the show.

Don’t be overwhelmed by making scratch pizza dough. Most of the time to make it is hands-off.

From Scratch

Here’s my favorite simple pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 to 3.5 cups of flour
• 1 cup of warm water
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Stir water, sugar, and yeast together and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add olive oil and salt, then stir in the flour until well blended.
3. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, then let it rise, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 425F.
5. Knead the dough again, then roll it out.
6. Top it with your desired toppings.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.

If you get your yeast in bulk is way more thrifty than in those little packets.

Sort of Scratch

Next, we have “sort of scratch.” These doughs take a wee bit of work but not quite as much as making it from scratch. But keep in mind, we pay for the time of others. These shortcuts add money to the price of your pizza.

• Refrigerated dough (none of the mixing, only some rising and rolling)
• Crescent roll dough pizza (get off-brand)
• Bisquik pizza (here’s a recipe for a homemade Bisquik-ish mix you can keep on hand at a fraction of the price)

Convenient

If you’re in a hurry, there are ways to get around making your own dough.

• Pizza crusts (the ones in the bread aisle are less expensive than the ones in the freezer aisle)
• Pitas (the nice thick ones)
• Tortillas (for thin crust personal pizzas – this was a family favorite for my kiddos, and it’s very inexpensive)

Now that you’ve got your base all set, it’s time to top some pizzas!

Classic Homemade Pizza

Pizza is a classic for a reason. Ordinary, everyday pizza is a hit for just about everyone.

Sauce:

• Canned spaghetti sauce
• Jarred spaghetti sauce
• Small can of pizza sauce
• Crushed tomatoes seasoned with basil, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and thyme
• Homemade marinara sauce

Toppings:

We all have our favorite pizza toppings, so use those here. I like to keep pepperoni, a bag of sauteed peppers and onions, and diced ham in the freezer to top an emergency pizza fast. But think about your family’s last pizza order – keep that stuff on hand for the most authentic take-out-fake-out possible.

Cheese:

Use your favorite cheese to top your pizza. We like a blend of mozzarella and parmesan. If you shred it yourself, you save much0-moolah over the bags of pre-shredded cheese.

Mexican Pizza

This was a household staple when my kiddos were growing up. It’s filling, frugal, and delicious.

Ingredients:

• Refried beans (canned or homemade)
• Salsa (from the store or homemade)
• Ground beef (or ground whatever-floats-your-boat)
• Taco seasoning (DIY version here)
• Diced veggies: tomato, peppers, onions
• Cheese (cheddar is a great option)

Instructions

1. Cook your ground beef in a skillet with taco seasoning. About 1/4 pound of beef is plenty for one pizza, but add more if you want it meatier.
2. Spread refried beans on the pizza crust of your choice.
3. Spoon some salsa on top of it.
4. Top it with cheese, then veggies.
5. Sprinkle a tiny bit more taco seasoning on top.
6. Bake it according to the needs of your crust or until everything is melty and hot.

Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before slicing. You may want to serve this with sour cream or more salsa for dipping.

White Pizza

The trick to white pizza is to pre-bake your dough before adding your toppings.

Toppings:

• Olive oil seasoned with either fresh garlic or garlic powder.
• Ricotta cheese (or whip up cottage cheese in the food processor for a cheaper version)
• Mozzarella (the tastiest is the balls of fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced; the easiest is pre-shredded mozzarella; the cheapest is to shred your own mozzarella from a brick of cheese)
• Parmesan
• Dried herbs: Italian seasoning, OR oregano, basil, parsley

Directions:

1. Brush the crust with seasoned olive oil.
2. Spread ricotta or whipped cottage cheese over it.
3. Top it with mozzarella and parmesan.
4. Sprinkle herbs on top.
5. Bake it at 425 for 10-15 minutes until gloriously gooey and melty.

You can also add very finely chopped spinach and grilled chicken to this pizza to make it a bit more filling.

No-Cheese Pizza

No cheese? Is she CRAZY?

Well, yes, but not because of no-cheese pizza. In this pizza, the toppings are the stars of the show. In Italy, one version of this is called Pizza Marinara. I only make this with homemade pizza dough because I want everything present to be top quality.

• Pizza dough (homemade or store-bought dough)
• Marinara sauce (go with a really good one – I prefer homemade for this)

Topping Options

• Fresh herbs (head out to your garden and get some oregano and basil)
• Meat (I like to make this with ground beef, sausage crumbles, pepperoni, and ham)
• Veggie (peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs)

The key is LOTS of toppings. You won’t miss the cheese if you use good ingredients.

Here are some more cheeseless pizza recipe ideas.

Breakfast Pizza

Pizza for breakfast? Yes PLEASE.

I like to use a base that is more common to breakfast food, like the DIY Bisquik recipe above or crescent roll dough. (Get the off-brand.) You can also use English muffins and make personal pizzas.

I use the same kind of sauce I’d use for classic pizza when I make breakfast pizza, but some folks like it better “white pizza” style with just the addition of breakfast-y things.

Toppings:

• Scrambled eggs
• Whole eggs cracked on top, salted, and peppered
• Crumbled bacon
• Sausage
• Diced ham
• Onions
• Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Shredded cheese

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (or whatever your dough requires.) Pre-bake your dough if it isn’t already cooked.
2. Add your toppings. If money is tight, you can use far less meat. Try chopping it up smaller to make it go further and lend its flavor.
3. If you’re using raw eggs, make sure to cook them to your desired consistency. As a hater of runny eggs (don’t hate me), I’d be devasted if I cut into my pizza and yellow goo ran all over it. But you might like that, so watch the eggs closely.
4. Bake this for approximately 10-12 minutes until your eggs are done and your cheese melts everything together into deliciousness.

Barbeque Chicken Pizza

This is so incredibly delicious and tastes positively gourmet. We always save our leftover chicken for this tasty purpose.

Toppings

• Barbecue sauce of choice
• Cooked chicken off the bone
• Onions
• Hot Peppers
• Cheese

Directions

1. Use the barbecue sauce like you would marinara and spread it all over your pizza crust. (Maybe a little more thinly spread if you like lots of sauce.)
2. Top it with chicken, diced onions and hot peppers, and cheese.
3. Bake it according to the needs of your crust.

Deep Dish Pizza

The star of deep dish pizza is, of course, the crust. That makes it filling and delicious. You can go all out and use this recipe for the dough, or you can take a shortcut and make your crust out of refrigerated biscuits – it depends on how much time you have.

I prefer to use my cast-iron skillet for deep-dish pizza. I always cook whatever meat I’m adding to the pizza in it to get a flavorful coating. Preheat your oven to 375.

You’re going to FILL your pizza instead of topping your pizza.

I cook all my fillings and then mix in the sauce. Here are the things I use for deep dish pizza:

• Sausage crumbles
• Ground beef
• Pepperoni (diced)
• Onions
• Mushrooms

Feel free to add all your favorites. Once the meat is cooked through, add the veggies and get them browned as well. Remove the toppings and put them into a large bowl. There, stir in your sauce.

Press the dough (whether biscuits or homemade) into your skillet once it’s cooled enough to touch, and make it go all the way up the sides. Then brush the dough with butter seasoned with garlic powder.

Add half of your cheese of choice to the pizza dough in the skillet.

Pour in your fillings, and then top it with the rest of the cheese.

I like to put my skillet on a cookie sheet in case my pie runneth over. Bake it for 20-25 minutes. Check it halfway through – you may need to lay some foil over it to prevent the edges from getting overcooked.

Let your deep dish pizza sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing. This is an eat-with-a-knife-and-fork pizza, and it’s super filling. One cast-iron skillet of pizza with a side of salad feeds all four of us, with nobody leaving hungry. This is so good that I often use it as a company meal.

What’s your favorite kind of homemade pizza?

How do you make homemade pizza? Do you have any thrifty pizza suggestions? Let’s talk about pizza in the comments.

About Daisy

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.